British visionary turns to Australia

He’s the brains behind a £136 million ($203 million) apartment sale this year in London. Now property billionaire Nick Candy has his sights set on Sydney.

In town with his girlfriend and former Neighbours star Holly Valance for the debut of her new movie, Candy says he would like to grace Sydney with a development similar to One Hyde Park, Knightsbridge, London, the world’s most expensive apartment complex.

He is the chief executive of Candy & Candy, interior designers to the mega-rich. The CPC development company owned with his brother Christian built the sprawling London precinct in a joint venture with Qatar Prime Minister Sheik Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr Al-Thani. After opening this year, total apartment sales have exceeded £1.1 billion and a square metre of floor space costs up to £64,000.

An Australian version would, of course, be cheaper, Candy says.

“We would love to do the One Hyde Park in Sydney," Candy told The Australian Financial Review.

“We bring development management expertise, understanding how to build for the super wealthy and we understand what’s required in terms of amenities and services, and the cost of all that. But we would want to have a local partner because of the planning laws and construction."

He has looked at a development site in Sydney and met developer Lend Lease about six months ago, although nothing came of it.

He cites a list of Australian media barons, publicans and actors as potential buyers, although their wealth would scarcely compare to his London buyers. There, the Ukraine’s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, reportedly spent £136 million in April on three apartments that he plans to turn into a 2500 square metre pad. He bought them “shell and core", meaning no kitchen, bathroom or even wall linings. Candy & Candy is doing the fit-out, which will probably cost a good few million.

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But Sydney could face stiff competition from its southern neighbour. “We don’t mind whether it’s Sydney or Melbourne," Candy says. “I was very impressed by Melbourne. When I first went, probably two years ago, I was very impressed by the quality of the restaurants, the quality of the hotels. In some respects, I would say that Melbourne is even more international than Sydney."

Fifteen years ago, he and his brother Christian, then in their early 20s, began renovating and selling London flats, using a £6000 loan from their grandmother. They sold their first £1 million apartment in Knightsbridge in the late 1990s, and things kept getting better from there.

One Hyde Park involved a £1.1 billion loan from three banks, which has been fully repaid.

The building’s glass alone cost £100 million. The windows are triple-glazed with special blinds between each layer which automatically close when the sun hits to protect expensive artworks.

Last month, bespoke car dealer McLaren opened its first-ever retail showroom in the development. Candy has a McLaren car on order.

The two brothers fly hundreds of hours each month and last caught up in Guernsey, on the Channel Islands, where Christian lives.

“He doesn’t come to London at all," Candy says. “Tax reasons."

But the London property world view them as newcomers who pay too much for sites, and many are watching to see if they can sell all the apartments. The brothers made a loss last year with unsuccessful projects in London and Los Angeles, but “should be back to profit" this year, Candy says.

He shrugs off criticism. “A lot of New York and Hong Kong are re-pricing that top end real estate based on One Hyde Park," he says.

Candy says they have designed the interiors of private A380s and Boeing 787 dreamliners.

Their private house fit-outs are known for sparing no effort or expense. Candy says he’s working on a house project involving motorised 20-metre long curved bullet-proof windows.

Another project at the concept stage is an island with a beach and gardens. But it’s not just any island – it will sit on a ship, which will move at about 5 knots an hour.

“It would be a couple of acres," he says. “So you would have an amazing villa, tennis courts, helipad, docking bay for super yachts and smaller yachts, and then you can move the whole thing around."

They are believed to hold around £3 billion of property in London alone, with plans for projects around the global totalling more than £2 billion. Candy attributes their success to attention to detail.

“We won’t take anything which is not the very best," he says.

“Our attention to detail is annoying for a lot of people, but we are absolutely anal about every little thing. If something is slightly marked or chipped, don’t touch it up, replace it."